Fighting a Caspian-like Battle on the Home Front

I took the children to see Prince Caspian this weekend. I thought the movie was incredibly well-done. One of the great things about movies based on classic literature is that you basically know what you will be getting. In fact, very rarely will I take the children to see any movie that is not based upon a book that I have read. Even if the movie is rated G, there may be materials I find objectionable because they run counter to our beliefs. Or, it might be so inane that I find it a waste of our time and mental energy.

Caspian was rated PG for violence, but it was not senseless violence. As scary as the battle scenes may be, you know the good side is going to beat the evil side. And good and evil are clearly defined. Children also need to know that there are battles worth fighting.

Just like many of our American men felt a strong urge to go fight for our country after the attacks on 9/11/01, I came out of the movie with a desire to fight for something worthwhile. After making dinner and cleaning up, I did a cross-stitch while the children watched a BBC version of Prince Caspian that we had on VHS.

How can I fight for something worthwhile? I thought, thinking that I was doing next-to-nothing. To paraphrase A.A. Milne in his Winnie-the-Pooh stories, Christopher Robin says that “nothing” is what you tell your parents you’re doing when you go outside to play. We all know the importance of childhood playtime. So, “Nothing” can actually be “something” worthwhile.

I pondered that for a while and realized that the “nothing” I was presently doing was really quite something. I was enjoying my children while they filled their minds with great stories. I was relaxing, taking delight in the wonderful family life God has granted us. I was making a handmade gift for someone, something the family in that household can take joy from for many years to come, rather than writing out a check or buying something off a registry.

We mothers are indeed fighting a holy war in our homes. We are fighting a culture that says things are more important than people, morals are relative, and God is a creation of our minds.

King Miraz feared the truth and brainwashed his people until they came to believe that the Narnians were extinct. The secular establishment fears the righteous, and brainwashes us through the media, textbooks, and schools to believe that really good people are extinct. Good politicians are considered oxymorons, brides are generally assumed to be unworthy of wearing white, men are believed to be incapable of remaining faithful in both mind and body, and religion is held to be something for the weak-minded.

In the book, Prince Caspian’s nurse (who was not mentioned in the movie) was sent away for disobeying the king. She and the tutor who takes her place, Doctor Cornelius, raise a righteous leader by defying the King and secretly telling the child all the stories of Narnia. Like them, we can do our part in bringing up righteous citizens by instilling God’s Word in our children’s hearts and rearing them in homes that live uprightly.

“Rather, the law of the Lord is their joy; God’s law they study day and night.”
Psalm 1:3